Your Daily Asia Gaming eBrief: Crown/Star merger fails Drucker test

Wednesday 26th of May 2021

Good morning.
As international travel is still largely unavailable to Chinese tourists, the country’s citizens have been opting for trips “back to nature”, according to COTRI, which has observed a rise in luxury camping in 2020, among other notable trends. During the G2E Asia online conference on Tuesday, Augmentum CTO Wayne Hom discussed the concept of frictionless gaming - noting this will be important for operators in the digitalised future. In Yokohama, the opposition party is preparing to put forth a mayoral candidate who will be expressly opposed to IR development. Finally, Sudhir Kale, gaming industry consultant and academic puts the Crown-Star merger through the famous “Drucker test” to determine whether the merger of The Star and Crown will be a success. Find out how they fared.

First, the news

Glamping & RVs among new China travel preferences
Augmentum CTO details vision for frictionless gaming
Yokohama opposition prepares candidate, lawsuit to stop IR development
Putting the Star/Crown merger proposal to the Drucker test
Royal Commission hears of Crown inaction on money laundering
CNMI judge awards IPI workers $5.9m in damages
NZ halts travel bubble with Victoria amidst new cases
Grand Korea Leisure’s Seven Luck property hotel to be torn down
Macau visitor arrivals up 5% month-on-month
Macau authorities call for more vaccinations after 51st case
China sees 914 "surrender" for cross border gambling
Texas gaming bill dies in committee halls

What you need to know

Glamping & RVs among the new China travel trends

Although much of the world is closed down to international travel, destinations interested in attracting the Mainland Chinese visitor should be aware of new trends and preferences and tailor their offer accordingly. That’s the message from the China Outbound Tourism Research Institute (COTRI), which points to a significant increase in luxury camping, or glamping as it’s known, and travel in recreational vehicles last year. This raises questions for Asia's integrated resorts as to how to cater for the new preferences.

Augmentum CTO details vision for friction-less gaming

Friction-less gaming was a notable point of discussion during this week’s G2E Asia Online conference, held on May 25. During a session on innovation enhancing smart tables, Augentum chief technology officer and chief innovation officer Wayne Hom shared his vision for a friction-less gaming and customer service environment. Hom noted that given the restrictions in gaming products, operators should be looking to improve the “velocity” of gaming. A similar innovation could be brought to the table games space, according to Hom, through the introduction of cashless buy-ins, mobile payments, and digital front money access, even making credit cashless, he said.

Yokohama opposition prepares candidate, lawsuit to stop IR development

Ahead of the August 22 mayoral election, various anti-casino forces are laying the groundwork both to support a mayoral candidate who will pull the plug on IR development and to launch a new lawsuit to harass and delay the project. In one move, the so-called “Don of Yokohama,” the 90-year-old Yokohama Harbor Resort Association Chairman Yukio Fujiki, launched a new organization this weekend called the “Yokohama Future Concept Conference." Fujiki also used the occasion to lay into the prime minister over the Tokyo Olympics, declaring that Suga was acting “not Japanese” by trying to hold the Games in the midst of a pandemic and had “abandoned his duty to protect the lives of the Japanese people.”

Insights

INDUSTRY OPINION: Sudhir Kale

Star/Crown merger under the Drucker test

Founder and CEO of GamePlan Consultants Sudhir Kale, judges the proposed merger between Crown Resorts and Star Entertainment according to Drucker's criteria (who identified six rules that may mean success or failure when it comes to mergers and acquisitions) and finds it comes up lacking. He also questions the impact on the customer experience in Australia's casinos.

Corporate Spotlight

Pragmatic Play on the forefront of Asian markets growth

With so much room for development in the Asian markets, Pragmatic Play isn’t resting on its laurels. The increasing acceptance of igaming has seen a slow change in attitude towards regulation, with more and more markets on the cusp of delivering legislative roadmaps, which will truly propel the market to a period of hypergrowth – something Pragmatic Play intends to be at the forefront of.

Industry Updates

NOVOMATIC appoints Thomas Komnacky as VP global ops
QTech Games expands content portfolio with Lady Luck Games

Supplier Special Report

Jade looks forward to the boom times

Jade Entertainment CEO Joe Pisano says he has seen little change to land-based operations at the halfway point in 2021 and he expects this to continue through the remainder of the year. “We will start to see a slow recovery in 2022 once vaccinations reach the masses and 2023 will be a BOOM year for the gaming industry in Asia.”

Pinnacle’s Esports View to provide immersive betting experience

The Asian fan base propelled esports into the stratosphere, and the same communities are now also having a huge sway on the direction of the esports betting product. Set to go live in 21Q3, the Esports View is set to be a major step forward in providing the Asian esports bettor with a more immersive betting experience.